My New Blog - http://kevinlynes.wordpress.com

Since starting up my Blogger site in October of last year, I've tried to post regularly - every day when I could. The response has been great, and I've been really surprised. As the months have gone on, I've started up a Wordpress blog site in addition, and used the functionality of Blogger to email my postings in from my Blackberry. I then imported these new postings into Wordpress to ensure that both blogs were the same.

Then - shock horror - the Tech Support team from Wordpress informed me that by running twin identical blogs, I was running the risk of being blacklisted by search engines.

And so I've had to make a choice. Do I maintain my Blogger site, or my Wordpress site?

I'm keeping Wordpress, so if you want to read my thoughts, observations and opinions from now on, go to http://kevinlynes.wordpress.com/.

Sorry Blogger - it's been great...

Whoever you were - thanks

Having been in back-to-back meetings since 8am this morning, I stepped outside County Hall today for some fresh air. Standing in the Members' car park checking emails on my Blackberry, a young man walked past me. He looked to be in his mid to late twenties, with a baseball cap and jeans, nose stud and earrings, and he carried a can of Special Brew. "Can I ask you a question?" he asked. "Of course" I replied.

"What's it like to have a job?" he said. I wondered if I'd heard him correctly, so I got him to repeat his question. "See, I've never worked" he went on. "D'you work in there? What d'you do?" he pointed towards County Hall.

I explained that I was a County Councillor, elected every four years. I asked him if he'd ever spoken to his local Councillor. Needless to say, he hadn't. When I asked why, he told me that nobody ever asks him how he feels and nobody ever listens to him.

"You know what you want to do?" he suggested. "You want to take that suit off, put some jeans on, and get out and talk to real people."

We chatted for a few minutes more, then parted company. But as I walked back to my office along the opulent wood-panelled Cabinet corridor; as I passed my colleagues' offices with their flickering computers and ringing phones, I reflected on why we're all there. I reflected on how one of Sandy Bruce-Lockhart's most powerful policy ideas, the Kent Supporting People Programme, had come about.

Sandy had taken time to work a night shift at a soup kitchen in East Kent. He'd spoken to those less fortunate, trapped in a spiral of dependency with no clear escape route from poverty.
I have no idea who that young man was today. But I've already discussed with my officers how I can put my jeans on and go and talk to real people. So whoever you were - thanks.

Cabinet in the Community

I note that Gordon Brown took his Cabinet to the people today, visiting the people of Birmingham.  At the International Conference Centre, Cabinet Members each sat at a table of 'real people' to discuss life, the universe and everything, and Mr Brown promised to send every person in the hall a written copy of what he and his team understood from the conversation.  That should be an interesting read.

A formal Cabinet meeting ensued, preceded by a suitable media call before the media were then expelled before the confidential discussion.

After this, Labour Ministers travelled hither and thither, spreading the word in a range of media friendly settings. Ed Balls, Education Secretary visited a local school where he congratulated a hall full of visibly nonplussed students on their exam results; whilst Foreign Secretary David Miliband talked culture and was presented with what appeared to be a silver camel in a presentation box.

And all around, Mr Brown's colleagues told everybody what a jolly good man he was - Alan Johnson, Andy Burnham, even Harriet Harman appeared to have conveniently forgotten the contrary interview she gave to Andrew Marr just a couple of weeks ago.

And all the while, Brendan Barber worked the crowd at the TUC Congress into a state of fervour over plans to strike over the 'derisory' public sector pay award.

You couldn't write this stuff. The sooner it's all over and we can stop pretending Labour's chaotic circus has some intended consequences, the better.

£25,000 Deal for Pembury

I'm really grateful to Michael Romyn at the Kent and Sussex Courier (click here to go to the story) for featuring my idea for a mini-Local Area Agreement in Pembury. The idea, which will bring Kent County Council and Pembury village together in a true expression of localism, should be the first pilot of its kind in the country.

Kent County Council was the first Conservative authority to team up with the Labour Government in the first three-year Public Service Agreement, which set hard-to-reach targets such as reductions in teenage pregnancies and fires in the home. By hitting those targets we would save the Government money, so they in turn agreed to share the saving with us. After three years, we hit ten of our twelve targets completely, and came really close on the other two - earning Kent twenty two million pounds in performance reward grant.

So it occurred to me that KCC in turn could negotiate a smaller version of this directly with a community. And to me, the Pembury community is ideally placed to be the first pilot of this approach. An excellent Parish Council, a range of well attended community organisations -Scouts and Guides, Pembury Athletic Football Club, University of the Third Age and the well-attended and progressive Churches - if this idea can work anywhere, it will work in Pembury.

I've asked the community and its organisations what kind of targets they'd like to see, though I have some views about including health and well-being, and joining up younger and older residents to generate sustainability. And several people have already told me that they'd like the £25,000 reward grant I've negotiated with the County Council to be spent on something substantial, like a community minibus.

Now all we need to do is agree a small set of targets which will leave Pembury an even stronger community.

And hopefully £25,000 better off.

Sonic versus Charlton

If you've seen the TV advert for Gillette razors, you'll know the agency has enlisted the assistance of Thierri Henri, Roger Federer and Tiger Woods to respectively kick and hit balls at some unsuspecting chap trying to have a quiet shave.

The sad thing is that, having assembled this trio of sporting superstars, they then have to explain by captions who they are.

I thought this was bad enough, until I saw the new Activia advert. A group of young boys are playing football, and call for an elderly chap walking his dog to "give us our ball back grandad.". He makes a stunning curved long shot into the back of the net, then the camera shows us all that the old chap is actually Jack Charlton.

The sad thing is that the final shot is a pot of Activia yoghourt next to a framed photo of Charlton in 1966 holding up the Jules Rimet trophy.

How sad that people are probably more likely to recognise Sonic the Hedgehog, Super Mario or some other Nintendo hero than a real person who has won their status by real human endeavour.

A shaggy dog story?

Just heard a great story from Johnny Vaughan, breakfast DJ on London's Capital Radio. It seems his dog was unwell with a dodgy tummy. Vaughan needed to take him to the vet, and covered the tan leather passenger seat of his car with a towel for protection against the effects of the tummy bug.

He put the dog in the car and went back to lock the house. The dog, preferring the smell and feel of the leather driver's seat, climbed across, knocking the gear stick into 'Drive'. The car lurched forward, pushing the car in front into a waste skip.

Trying to make a claim, his insurance company refused, on the basis that "the dog wasn't a named driver". Vaughan eventually claimed on his pet insurance, but commented that since his car premium was several hundred, but his pet insurance considerably less, he may as well cancel the car insurance and let his dog drive him everywhere...

A shaggy dog story?

Just heard a great story from Johnny Vaughan, breakfast DJ on London's Capital Radio. It seems his dog was unwell with a dodgy tummy. Vaughan needed to take him to the vet, and covered the tan leather passenger seat of his car with a towel for protection against the effects of the tummy bug.

He put the dog in the car and went back to lock the house. The dog, preferring the smell and feel of the leather driver's seat, climbed across, knocking the gear stick into 'Drive'. The car lurched forward, pushing the car in front into a waste skip.

Trying to make a claim, his insurance company refused, on the basis that "the dog wasn't a named driver". Vaughan eventually claimed on his pet insurance, but commented that since his car premium was several hundred, but his pet insurance considerably less, he may as well cancel the car insurance and let his dog drive him everywhere...